205 S. Main Street • P.O. Box 130, Elkader, Iowa 52043 • 563-245-1311
The Official Newspaper of the City of Elkader and Clayton County – Serving the area since 1878
May 16, 2012
Register photo by Pam Reinig
Memories for mom
Central students Brandi Beatty, front, and Alivia Keppler work on handprints for their Mother’s Day project.
By Pat McTaggart, Freelance Writer
Central Superintendent Allan Nelson is about to complete his first year as a shared Superintendent with the Central Community and Clayton Ridge School Districts. He came to Clayton Ridge in July 2002 from Farragut, Iowa, where he was superintendent for two years.
“This was the second year of whole grade sharing between the Guttenberg and Garnavillo school districts,” he said. “It was my job to help the districts work together and get ready to merge, which happened in 2005.”
Last year, Nelson was given a two-year contract to serve as a shared superintendent with Central. He’s looking forward to his second year and thinks he should have a better understanding of what to expect.
“The biggest difficulty about being a shared administrator is developing a relationship with your staff,” he said. “It’s difficult when you are away from the district half the time. It cuts down your visibility in each district. The biggest conflict is finding time for meetings.”
“It’s a full-time job here at Central, and a full-time job at Clayton Ridge, so there is a lot of extra work to be done after hours, but I also have a great administrative staff in each district that helps me share the workload,” he added. “They deserve appreciation for that.”
Nelson said the problems Central faces are the same as the ones in all of the schools he has worked at. “It boils down to declining enrollment and budget reductions,” he said. “Expenses tend to go up with inflation and salary increases. They will go up despite of declining enrollment, and that’s where we are caught between a rock and a hard place.”
“We are between a two-section school and a single-section school -- a little too big for one section and a little too small for two sections,” he continued. “The toughest thing we are dealing with right now is how to become a one-section school, or having whole grade sharing with a neighboring district. We have the advantage of location, being surrounded by six neighboring school districts. Whole grade sharing would maintain and provide learning opportunities for students. In the next couple of weeks there will be meetings here with neighboring districts concerning sharing, and the School Board will be looking into sharing programs this summer. That is one option to be viable in the future.”
Nelson thinks Central should exploit the economic opportunities offered in the district. “I plan to work with the Board to invite the community to have a conversation with the Board regarding the district’s future,” he said. “This should include how to grow enrollment by attracting families to the community and inviting students from neighboring districts to attend Central. School districts the size of Central have to be proactive to see how they will be viable in the future. We are planning ahead.”
“I think this first year went well,” he added. “I enjoy the people I work with and I plan to be a little more visible next year. I want to be viewed as someone who is a resource to the people of this community to help them accomplish their goals. My success here will be related to my transparency with the public.”
Driftless Diva
Where did time go?
Though it’s been several years since my youngest daughter finished high school, I still recall the way I felt that day—befuddled and more than a bit sentimental about the swift passing of time. It’s a feeling that many of you will experience Sunday as you watch your son or daughter graduate from Central High--or whenever or wherever your graduation is held. The transition from supervisor of your child's life to spectator is not an easy one. The following words, which I wrote for my daughter’s commencement, may resonate with you.
My youngest daughter is now a high school graduate, and I’m not quite certain how that happened.
I understand that she’s successfully completed 13 years of public schooling so she’s earned the right to walk across a stage in a cap and gown, shake hands with her principal, and accept a diploma that she’ll misplace before her first class reunion. What I don’t understand is where the time has gone. What happened to the 4,745 days since she skipped off to kindergarten swinging a Sesame Street book bag filled with crayons, markers, a jar of paste, and a box of tissues? When did she overcome her shyness? When did peers replace her parents as the center of her world? When did she make the transformation from a cute little girl to a striking young woman.
See The Clayton County Register for complete story
